Social Media camp: the Half-Baked game

It's been only 5 months, but I finally wrote a post on the Half-Baked game that was played at the Social Media Camp on July 30, 2008! My first post on Social Media Camp was here.

The Half-Baked game was the most entertaining event in the Social Media Camp. In this game, people are randomly assigned into 6 teams. The goal of each team is to come up with a startup idea and present its business plan to the judges. This being a Social Media Camp, one of the requirements was that the social media aspect should be built into the business plan.

It was fascinating to see how aspiring internet entrepreneurs think. It left me shaking my head: so this is how internet bubbles form! These are the kind of minds that gave us stuff like Pets.com in 2000. But no, it would be unfair to reach sweeping conclusions based on what I saw. 20 minutes is hardly enough time to come up with a business plan that's both original and viable. It was only a game after all.

First, the audience came up with 50 random words, and those words were written on the whiteboard. Each team needed to pick any two words that will make up their company's name. Then they had 20 minutes to come up with a tag line and a business plan. (Preferrably also a logo -- the room was full of people with computers, and I bet a lot of them, like me, had Photoshop).

Here is a sampling of the words suggested by the audience.

Here are the judges' criteria for evaluating the business concepts.

Here are the startup concepts the teams came up with:

Team 1: Buzz Squad -- like GPS for drinking

Team 2: Porn Sucks -- promoting positive porn to save sex workers

Team 3: Beer Buzz -- our team

Team 4: Time Pirates dot AAARGH! -- find a hidden treasure in your calendara

Team 5: Green Ninjas -- making green hot, but not like global warming

Team 6: Love Cookies -- customizable cookies

The whole article can be found on my web site. The pictures from the Half-Baked game and the rest of the Social Media camp can be found in my photo gallery.